The studio is located outside the beautiful town of Charlevoix, Michigan, about one mile from Lake Michigan and Lake Charlevoix.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Weaver's Delight Restoration - More Taken Apart

The loom is slowly getting taken apart, mainly to clean rust off most of the cast iron brackets, and to get metal parts out of the way so I can sand and varnish the wood.

Two days ago, I finished painting all the black trim on the wood. After that dried, I started getting the first coat of varnish on the wood framework. I will lightly sand that first coat and then add another.

The wooden bars with the pegs on the sectional beam needed to be cleaned and sanded. I managed to finish that, and got a coat of varnish on them, also. I will lightly sand them and get another coat of varnish on them, and then be able to assemble the sectional beam.

The frames to raise and lower the shafts were in pretty good shape, with minimal rust. I finished removing them from the shafts last night, and used a wire brush on the drill to remove what little rust there was and then painted them tonight. I finished painting the one side remaining in the photo tonight.

These parts to the shafts aren't going to be fun to clean. The two that are done were cleaned with navel jelly and a lot of elbow grease. I'm having to give my right hand and wrist a bit of rest from the sanding. It was affecting my nerves last night and today. I need to get my grip back to normal. Electric sanders and drills speed up the cleaning process, but the vibration isn't too good for my body!

I took the handle off the beater bar. It is cast aluminum, and was ugly, so I primed it and painted it hunter green, like the other metal parts. I think it looks much better. I'll get a photo of it once I clean up the screws and reattach it.

The breast and back beam rollers are a very rough wood, and no amount of sanding is going to smooth them, so I just put a coat of varnish on them. Hopefully, light sanding between several coats of varnish will help smooth them out a bit. I think they rotate, so I don't think smooth is critical. Obviously the loom came that way, and I'm sure many rugs were made on it through the years. This is the front of the loom. Even one coat of varnish has made a difference to the beam.

I still haven't touched the cloth beam, except to remove it from the
loom to make it easier to paint the trim below it. I still need to
unwind the apron to see it's condition. Hopefully it is just dirt that I
will have to deal with, rather than replacing it. Even if it needs
replacing, it won't be too big of a deal. I'm just hoping I don't need
to run to the fabric store to purchase canvas and grommets. It does look pretty dirty!

I like how the wood is starting to look. This has the black trim finished, and one coat of varnish. I am done with working on it this week. We have a happy occasion to celebrate this weekend at the 65th anniversary picnic for Bob's mom and dad. Next week, we have a sad occasion also, when we go to my sister's funeral. We just found out about it tonight. It was unexpected, and I'm sad.

About Me

It has been a dream of mine to learn weaving, ever since I was a child. My opportunity came early in 2005, when my sister-in-law let me borrow her countermarche loom. I had a couple friends help me understand the loom and get me started. Those first couple projects were exciting for me. I realized there was a lot to learn, so I signed up for Weaver's Boot Camp at Heritage Spinning and Weaving, in Lake Orion, Michigan. The class was great, I met a wonderful circle of weaving friends, and it pushed me into areas that would have taken me years to explore if I had been learning on my own.